8 Faces website relaunched

Site provides the foundation for upcoming 'read online' functionality

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Typography publication 8 Faces has released a new issue and also relaunched its website.

Each issue of 8 Faces has a core question at its heart: "If you could only use eight typefaces for the rest of your life, which would you choose?" The sixth in the series includes interviews with Monotype type director Dan Rhatigan, artist Seb Lester and self-proclaimed "type obsessed designer" Nina Stssinger, who talks about FF Ernestine. Designer Mike Kus is also quizzed about print-informed web design.

Publisher, editor and creative director Elliot Jay Stocks told .net he was especially excited about the cover: "The artwork is entirely blind de-bossed, and so there's no ink at all — you have to tilt it towards the light to see all of the details and it's very cool. It was a gamble because we didn't know exactly how it would look until it was actually de-bossed, but the gamble paid off I'm extremely happy with the results, as is our designer Stefan Weyer."

The new 8 Faces has a blind de-bossed cover

The new issue coincides with a website overhaul, which Stocks said is a "complete redesign from scratch, both visually and architecturally". Time didn't permit him work on the site himself, and so he commissioned Trent Walton, Reagan Ray, and Dave Rupert of Paravel "for their bold aesthetic and extensive experience with RWD and web typography". Stock's Viewport Industries business partner Keir Whitaker then integrated Paravel's files with Shopify, on which the entire site now runs.

According to Stocks, the impetus for reworking the site was to expand its scope: "8faces.com has always been a one-page site and it's worked well, but over time I've longed for more space. Perhaps the biggest incentive is that we'll soon be adding 'read online' functionality for our back issues. We're not launching with this offering in place, but the new site lays the groundwork for what's to come."